Ned Matinnia is a software engineer by day and a seeker for the rest of the time. Since discovering near-death experiences, which he credits as saving his life, he has joined IANDS and served at many of their conferences, and also on their board of directors.

Ned was born into a middle-class family in a beautiful town in northern California. However, with frequently-arguing parents and an extreme sensitivity to the emotions of others, life quickly became painful. Sometimes picked on and bullied, his self esteem was almost non-existent. By high school, he was thinking about leaving life early, as he didn’t see much reason to be here. A science lover, he believed what was taught about evolution and about life being basically an accident, and void of greater meaning. It wasn’t until he talked to a medium who brought through his deceased grandfather, that he realized that life is bigger than what both science and religion teach.

Once he learned about near death experiences, he realized how much he related to them. He has started the Near Death Experiences Facebook group, which now has over 30,000 members. And he has served at and been a board member for the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) since his first conference in Scottsdale in 2012.